The present invention is directed to a container for storing liquids, solids, aerosols, slurries, pastes, separable items, and the like, which container is also used in dispensing the contents thereof. The container of the invention may be used for storing and dispensing shampoo, hair conditioner, liquid cleaning agents, laundry detergents and a host of other contents, where such container stores the contents when not needed, and which container is used for dispensing the contents when such contents are needed for use. Conventional storage and dispensing containers, whether made of glass, metal or plastics, are generally stored upright on a shelf or floor, with the bottom surface of the container supporting it on the shelf, or the like. Such conventional containers, therefore, require available horizontal space or area for their storage, which often times is not available, or available only to a limited degree. Thus, available space, whether in a home, office, business, etc., must be judiciously apportioned for an optimum allocation of containers requiring storage. In addition, it often occurs that there is no horizontal shelf or support available for supporting the container at a location where it would be most convenient. The present invention solves these problems of limited or no horizontal support surface by providing a container, capable of multifarious uses, sizes, and shapes, which utilizes the vertical space available and provided by walls, shower stalls, shelf-doors, closet doors, and the like, thereby completely obviating the need or necessity of horizontal supporting surfaces for storing containers, while at the same time allowing for facile and quick dispensing.
Patents which relate to the field of the invention are as follows:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,793,517 discloses a resilient bottle or container that has three compartments for liquid soap, shampoo and conditioning rinse, respectively. A normally closed, openable valve controls a port in each compartment. The soap valve opens into the center of a sponge which is fastened to the bottle. The bottle can be supported on a vacuum cup on a shower wall for dispensing shampoo and conditioning rinse. On opening of any valve and manually depressing bottle, liquid is dispensed from the corresponding compartment.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,470,523 discloses a liquid soap dispenser whose container is formed of flexible plastic material and is provided with a flat rear wall and an externally-threaded nipple projecting from the front wall adjacent the base. The nipple has a cap screwed thereon which incorporates a pivoted spigot that when folded in seals the nipple and when folded out creates an outlet from which liquid soap is discharged when the front wall is pressed. Secured to the rear wall is a pad whose outer surface has a layer of pressure-sensitive adhesive thereon. Also provided is a base sheet whose area is greater than that of the pad, the sheet having a pressure-sensitive adhesive coating on its underface, making it possible to adhere and conform the sheet to a selected wall site, after which the container pad is pressed against the central zone of the sheet to securely anchor the dispenser on the wall.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,022,625 discloses a storage container that is capable of continual reuse, which container may be easily and readily stored on substantially any vertical surface in a home, office, business, and the like. The container has a rearwardly-facing concave-shaped cutout or depression formed in the rear surface thereof, which cutout or depression is used for receiving therein, in a force-fit manner, an enlarged sphere or convex-shaped knob secured to a vertical surface, such as a wall or door, by which the container may be removably mounted to such vertical surface, for subsequent removal therefrom when it is needed to dispense the contents of the container.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,024,312 discloses an easily removable pressure-sensitive adhesive which can be removed by stretching it lengthwise. WO 92/11332 discloses a high performance removable pressure-sensitive adhesive tape comprising a highly extensible backing bearing on at least one surface a layer of a photo-polymerized acrylic pressure sensitive adhesive. WO 92/11333 discloses an article suitable for adhering to a surface comprising a substrate bearing on one major surface thereof a removable adhesive tape comprising a highly extensible and substantially inelastic backing and a layer of pressure sensitive adhesive.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,406,781 discloses an adhesive article adapted for removable adhesive bonding on a support surface, such as a wall, includes a base member and a stretch release adhesive tape strip. The adhesive tape strip is a sequential release-type adhesive strip having a non-adhesive end portion which allows the base member to release from the adhesive strip during the removal process while the adhesive strip remains adhered to the support surface, therefore reducing the incidence of unwanted catapulting. To prevent relative movement between the base member and the adhesive strip during the removal process and therefore increase the likelihood of successful controlled sequential release of the base member, the base member includes a stabilizer arranged to abut the adhesive strip if the base member shifts as the adhesive strip is stretched during removal. The stabilizer can be a generally rigid projection or a compressible stop member which extends outwardly from the end of the base member adjacent the end of the adhesive strip.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,001,471 discloses double-sided stretchable adhesive tapes for use in conventional applications, particularly including the mounting or joining of an object to another surface. An improvement lies within the ability to control the timing of the de-bonding of both surfaces so that one adhesive surface releases before the other. The earlier release can be either on the object side or the surface side, depending on the desired effect. The present invention is applicable to all stretchable tape constructions including the use of plastic backing materials and/or elastic backing materials and allows such an object to be removed without risking substantial snap-back of the adhesive tape or catapulting of the object. The aforementioned advantages can be achieved by a double-sided adhesive tape having a stretchable backing layer, plastic or elastic, and having a lower-adhesion or non-adhesive portion of one adhesive surface, so that a corresponding greater adhesion adhesive portion of the other side remains more aggressively adhered to a surface during stretch removal while the portion of the one adhesive surface is less aggressively adhered or completely released from its surface. A non-adhesive portion may be adhesive-free, or may be an adhesive layer portion which is rendered non-adhesive. A lower-adhesion portion may comprise a low adhesion material, i.e., a weaker adhesive, or may be rendered lower in adhesion by a treatment or coating.
WO 20/010507 describes a stretch release adhesive tape construction that is removable from one or more objects to which it is adhered and which is re-usably separable within its construction allowing the separation and subsequent reconnection of articles. This tape is identified to be suitable for mounting applications on plaster, concrete, glass, metal or plastic and for applications that include wall hangings, dispensers, wire clips, carrying handles, closure applications, removable labels, diapers etc.